The building in Braunau am Inn, Austria, where Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was born in 1889, has officially begun its new role as a police station. This significant transformation is the culmination of an effort by the Austrian government to prevent the terraced house from becoming a focal point for neo-Nazi sympathisers and to symbolically reclaim the site.
Previously privately owned and housing a charity for disabled people, the Austrian state compulsorily purchased the building in 2017. Two years later, plans were announced to remodel it into a police station. The head of the Austrian interior ministry's history department, Stephan Mlczoch, stated that the primary objective was to 'prevent any association with Adolf Hitler, so as to strip it of that mystique.' A prominent 'Police' sign now adorns the white façade, replacing any previous subtle markers.
Even before the extensive remodelling, the only public acknowledgement of the building's dark historical link was a rock on the pavement. This rock, originating from the Mauthausen concentration camp where between 90,000 and 120,000 people perished during the Holocaust, remains in place. It bears the stark inscription 'Never again fascism' and notably omits any mention of Hitler.
Local officials report that incidents involving visitors with neo-Nazi sympathies have decreased, now limited to 'isolated incidents'. While specific details were not provided, it is illegal in Austria to display Nazi symbols or perform the Hitler salute. Mayor Johannes Waidbacher, who was part of a commission that recommended the building be used for a charitable or official administrative purpose, believes the community has largely accepted the change. He noted that a charity would have made the building too accessible to the public, potentially undermining the deterrent effect.
However, the project has not been without its critics. The Mauthausen Committee, a prominent Austrian Holocaust survivors' group, has voiced opposition, arguing that a police station is an inappropriate use for the site. Robert Eiter of the Mauthausen Committee suggested that the approach risks encouraging forgetting rather than remembering Hitler's atrocities. Despite this, many local residents appear supportive of the conversion, hoping it will definitively end the building's unwanted historical associations.